Ennis-Hill, Dasaolu, Lewis and Grabarz all named in World Championship Team

Tuesday, 28th July 2015

ENNIS-HILL NAMED IN BRITISH ATHLETICS TEAM FOR IAAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

British Athletics today named a team of 62 athletes to represent British Athletics at the World Championships in Beijing, China 22-30 August 2015.

Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill (coach: Toni Minichiello), who returned to competition in May following the birth of her son Reggie, has accepted selection following impressive performances at last weekend’s Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, where she recorded three season’s bests across two consecutive days. Ennis-Hill will be joined in the heptathlon by medal rival Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Mike Holmes), who will also compete in the Long Jump.

Reigning 5000m and 10000m World Champion Mo Farah (Alberto Salazar) has confirmed he will aim to defend both titles in the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium next month. Farah, who won the 3000m at the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games this weekend and finished just 0.12 seconds outside his own British 1,500m record in Monaco on 17 July, will be looking to complete a hat-trick of world 5000m titles after taking gold in 2011 and 2013.

Reigning Olympic, Commonwealth and European Champion Greg Rutherford (Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo) is targeting an athletics Grand Slam in China by adding the only missing gold medal to his impressive collection and becoming only the fourth ever British athlete – after Daley Thompson, Sally Gunnell and Jonathan Edwards – to simultaneously hold all the major titles.

Also selected and displaying superb form after breaking the British records this weekend are long jumper Shara Proctor (Rana Reider) and sprinter Dina Asher-Smith (John Blackie). Proctor added three centimetres to the women’s record on Saturday, setting a new mark of 6.98m and Asher-Smith, selected in the 200m, became the first British woman to dip under 11 seconds for the 100m on Saturday, with a time of 10.99.

Making his British Athletics debut in the 200m, Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills) showed this past weekend that he is more than at home on the big stage, after clocking a personal best of 20.05s to win the 200m at the Olympic Stadium in London. Hughes is not the only youngster in the squad as 18 year-old 800m runner Kyle Langford (George Harrison) is one of four members from this month’s European Junior squad to make the step up to a full GB international.

British Athletics Performance Director Neil Black said:
“Beijing is a hugely important event to us, yet this is the first of three huge global competitions for us, with the Olympics in Rio next year and the home World championships in 2017.

“In selecting athletes we were looking at either a potential to finish top eight in this year’s Worlds or to give opportunities to athletes developing towards medal success in 2016 and beyond.

“I’m very confident we have selected a team who can be successful in Beijing, as well as use it as a platform onto further Olympic and World successes.”